Anth 324 Anthropology of Gender, 3 March 2009 GENDER, PROPERTY AND THE STATE

What is a state? A working definition: a state is a central political structure in which leaders have the ability to enact law and use force; the essential purpose of the state is to organize and defend its members and its resources.

THUS, a state has to: - define who is a member (legally, in terms of ideology, etc.) - are only men, propertied people, members of specific ethnic or religious groups considered to be members? - promote this sense of itself and who is a member (i.e. ideology) - may need to count people, thus engage in some sort of census - who is counted? How? - define what resources it needs to regulate and how members get access to those resources - impose taxes (again, defining who is taxed and how) - enact laws about who legitimately can own property (kinship may be involved here through inheritance rights, or other decisions about who controls property when a person loses this state right) - may have a police force or military in order to defend state borders and laws

How does this relate to gender? How have your gendered lives been structured by these elements of the state? Do any readings in particular alert you to how the state structures gender?

Rapp - deals largely with prehistoric and historical information on the origin of states - updates Engels: examines more varied and nuanced ways in which kinship, property and state formation are linked - also notes change in cosmologies toward more androcentric gods as states develop - re warfare, notes mixed effects on women - were women involved in trade? - must not assume the subordination of women in state societies - must examine how expansion of Western capitalism affects gender relations in Global South

Caldwell Ryan - focuses on contemporary period - examines how women have interacted with state structures - resisting unfair inheritance laws - women may vote (but do they do so freely?); can they hold political office? - how do various forms of religion, including fundamentalism, affect gender status? - how does nationalism affect gender status? - how have global economic forces affected gender roles? - how have women acted to affect state policy? (practical and strategic gender interests) - notes gap between rhetoric and reality in many cases

Stone and James - link form of kinship and practice of dowry to a specific form of social organization in state society; that is, they are linked to stratification in societies in which there was intensive cultivation leading to wealth for certain families. The resulting classes wished to protect their wealth through endogamy, leading to arranged marriages and controls on women’s sexuality. Dowry allowed women to marry, including to marry up. - dowry murders occur in context of societal pressure on women to marry, decline of value of fertility* and rise of commodity culture. - *note decline in value of fertility itself could have been part of a feminist agenda to allow women to control their fertility - role of state: while dowry (and murder) are outlawed, there is little effective enforcement. Why? How might the state actively intervene to protect women?

Allison - examines how state requirements, educational requirements and social pressure delineate mothers’ roles and children’s discipline - clear essay structure with basic context and methodology given in introduction along with argument; theory section outlining Althusserian marxism; evidence section split into sequential parts (food ideology in Japan, school structure in Japan, role of obento in enculturating nursery schoolchildren, role of obento in enculturating mothers); conclusion flows from final evidence/analysis section

Think about how states influence gender roles in your society Identify a law in your society that governs the construction of either men’s or women’s (or both) gender roles. It might help to focus on property, in particular. Explain how it does this. Explain how your gender identity has been affected by it.

Think about how men’s and women’s gender roles in your society have influenced the organization of the state: Brettell and Sargent (2009: 302) end their introduction to this section with Silverblatt’s claim that “women have contributed to the definition of the state.” Identify a way in which men or women (or both) as gendered subjects have influenced the definition of the state in which you live. Explain how this worked. Explain how your gender identity has been affected by this Next; course websiteNextcourse website